Donation funds body cameras for Wilton police

Published 6:03 am, Friday, February 6, 2015

Realty 7 Owner/Broker Peg Koellmer presents a check to Acting Police Chief Robert Crosby. The money will go toward the purcahse of body cameras for the Wilton Police Department.

Realty 7 Owner/Broker Peg Koellmer presents a check to Acting Police Chief Robert Crosby. The money will go toward the purcahse of body cameras for the Wilton Police Department.

Donation funds body cameras for Wilton police

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WILTON — In a continuation of a decade of service to the community, Peg Koellmer and Realty 7 have donated the money for five body worn cameras to the Wilton Police Department.

The presentation ceremony took place at Koellmer’s Realty 7 office at 250 Danbury Road last week, with Acting Police Chief Robert Crosby — now the acting chief for the Wilton Police Department — accepting the $5,000 gift.

“Realty 7 has a charity group among their Realtors, and part of the proceeds goes to charity when they sell a home,” Crosby said. “They made a decision to donate money to the police department for body worn cameras. These will be a first for us.”

Koellmer said the gift was inspired by a neighboring police department.

“I saw an announcement in a newspaper that Westport (police) got them,” Koellmer said of the body worn cameras. “I have two nephews who are police officers in New Jersey. I look at that job, and I am worried about them. I do what I can to help them.”

Koellmer elaborated on her company’s charitable process.

“We have a charitable fund in the office,” Koellmer said. “We donate a percentage of our commissions to the fund, and it varies by the agent and the commission. I’ve been in business here 30-plus years, and it doesn’t matter how much money (a Realtor) puts in. We all get one vote on how the money is spent. I talked to (former police chief) Mike (Lombardo), and I don’t remember every detail, but I know this will help with pat-downs. We want five of them for the department, at $899 apiece. We want five of them.”

While certainly on the department’s wish list for several years, Crosby could not fit the roughly $900-per-unit expenditures into recent budgets.

“I didn’t put (body worn cameras) in the budget because they aren’t must-have,” Crosby said. “I thought we would have to go another year or two before we might get them. This is a very good kick-off for the project. These are going to be great. In the future most officers will be wearing them.”

Crosby cited just a couple of examples of how these cameras can benefit officers, including gathering evidence and protecting officers from fraudulent of frivolous claims — the latter of which Crosby can speak to personally.

“You can’t argue with video tape,” Crosby said. “When I started out here as a patrol officer a lot of years ago, someone had donated cameras for inside the police department. I had a suspect on a DUI, and while I was filling out paperwork, he was punching himself to imply I did it. His attorney came in saying something like ‘my kids are going to college on this case.’ The prosecutor said Wilton has cameras inside the building. The case was dropped. Who knows where this would have gone without the cameras.”

Other benefits include accountability — for all parties involved — training, and post-case evaluation for big arrests and incidents.

“We will be buying five cameras,” Crosby said. “We have experience with other cameras, but to get the model we’re experienced with is difficult. We’re getting the same model Westport uses, for one per shift. The officers will decide when and where they will use the cameras, and operational procedures will dictate. (The cameras) will enhance the in-car video. It’s great to have both.”

As with any union shop, all sides have to be on board with the new technology.

“We will work together with the administration and the union to come up with a policy,” Crosby said. “Everyone understands the need for these cameras. It’s not like someone is saying they don’t want this.”

A recent challenge to an officer’s procedure further strengthened the argument for getting cameras on all officers — eventually.

“We recently had someone accuse an officer of an inappropriate pat-down,” Crosby said. “The in-car video proved the officer used the appropriate procedure. The video exonerated the officer. Video is indisputable.”

The acting chief said there is an important feature of the Vievu LE3 cameras (vievu.com).

“What’s nice about this camera is the view never changes,” Crosby said. “When I walk in a dark room, this camera shows what the officer sees. It does not enhance the lighting, and it doesn’t go to ‘night vision.’ This is important, so when we review video, we can discuss exactly what the officer saw, at night, in the rain, whatever the conditions.”

Crosby is also enamored with the size of the units — about the size of a pager, for anyone who remembers those clip-on-the-belt communicators from the 1990s — and the fact that they are wireless.

“There are no wires, and they are an all-in-one type of thing,” Crosby said. “You hit the button and turn it on. In the future, we see most officers wearing body worn cameras. We will experiment where (on the uniform) we will wear the camera. We have to account for coats, and for larger-bodied officers.”

Crosby added that he has been in communication with Vievu, and he is “seeing what we can do with the price.”

For Koellmer, this is just part of continuous support for the town’s first responders.

“Anytime the (Emergency Operations Center) is open, I send 30, 12-inch sandwiches to them,” Koellmer said. “They are our friends. When I need someone at 3 a.m., someone with the guts and authority to protect, I know the police will protect me. We want to do this for the community. We started this 10 years ago. We get a call about a kid going off to college and he can’t afford a laptop, we try to make that happen.”